Flow dynamics of plasmas and gases continues to be a topic of much interest as scientists study plasma flows relating astronomical phenomenon. For example, much effort has been directed to studying plasma flows in the sun, around black holds, within planetary atmospheres (e.g., Jupiter, Saturn, etc.), or other under other circumstances. In addition, work in fusion requires manipulating, controlling, or confining plasmas in fusion reactors via magnetic fields. Unfortunately, technologies directed toward controlling fusion plasmas for containment are not necessarily practical when studying plasma flow interactions. Example technologies employing magnetic fields to control fusion plasmas, ionized gases, or charged particle beams include the techniques described in the following references.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,964 to Bass et al. titled “Confinement of High Temperature Plasmas”, filed Oct. 18, 1974, describes confining a plasma in a smooth toroidal configuration by constructing a toroidal magnetic bottle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,488 to Wells, titled “Containment of Plasmas at Thermonuclear Temperatures”, filed Jan. 5, 1979, discloses using multiple magnetic fields to generate a ringlike toroidal plasma vortex structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,864 to Ohyabu titled “Double Layer Field Shaping Systems for Toroidal Plasmas”, filed Jun. 28, 1978, describes using multiple conducting coils to generate magnetic fields to control plasma generation, confinement, and control.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,561 to Shelton titled “Plasma Containment Device”, filed Oct. 7, 1985, discusses using electromagnets to sustain a ball of plasma rather than a toroidal configuration as some of the previous references.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,181 to Jacobson titled “Stabilizing Plasma in Thermonuclear Fusion Reactions Using Resonant Low Level Electromagnetic Fields”, filed Apr. 27, 1992, discusses using strong magnetic fields for confinement and weaker magnetic fields to cause a plasma to resonant.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,603 to Holland et al. titled “Inductively Coupled Planar Source for Substantially Uniform Plasma Flux”, filed Nov. 28, 1997, describes using planar coils to generate magnetic fields that control generation of a plasma flux on a workpiece surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,484,492 to Meholic et al. titled “Magnetohydrodyanmic Flow Control for Pulse Detonation Engines”, filed Jan. 9, 2001, discloses using magnetic and electric fields to control a traveling detonation flame front within a pulse detonation engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,889 to Reiffel titled “Scanning and Flexing Charged Particle Beam Guide”, filed Nov. 24, 1999, discusses varying magnetic fields to guide particle beams useful in radiation oncology.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,079,001 to Nordberg titled “Nuclear Fusion Reactor Incorporating Spherical Electromagnetic fields to Contain and Extract Energy”, filed Mar. 16, 2005, describes using a spherical magnetic confinement field to contain plasma. Electrical power is obtained inductively from a reactor core.
U.S. patent application publication 2002/0080904 to Rostoker et al. titled “Magnetic and Electrostatic Confinement of Plasma in a Field Reversed Configuration”, filed Jul. 25, 2001, and U.S. patent application publication 2003/0007587 to Monkhorst et al. titled “Controlled Fusion in a Field Reversed Configuration and Direct Energy Conversion”, filed Feb. 14, 2002, both describe using magnetic fields to confine a plasma during fusion.
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Although the above references provide a great deal of insight into using magnetic fields to contain, confine, or control plasmas, the techniques they suggest would not be practical in a small laboratory setting. Nor would the techniques be useful in generating interactions between two or more plasma flows because the interactions between flows would, by their nature, cause instabilities within the plasma flows. Interestingly, known efforts to date have focused on achieving some form of controlled stability of plasma flows. What has yet to be appreciated is that a plasma interaction simulator can be designed and built where magnetic fields can induce multiple plasma flows in a plasma vessel where the flows interact due to discontinuities between the flows. One can then observe how the plasma flows interact at their interaction boundaries. Contemplated simulators can be used to model atmospheric banding on gas giants, plasma flows of the Sun, or other interesting plasma interaction phenomenon.
Thus, there is still a need for plasma interaction simulators.